Our mission is to help each child engage their curiosity, discover the depth of their resilience, and experience the strength of collaboration.
At The Cambridge Children's Circle (CCC), children are at the center of all that we do. We strive to provide a play-based environment that encourages children to learn by doing. Everyday, children are invited to play on site with a variety of open-ended materials that encourage them to practice independence and creativity. Choices range from art, sensory play, building, dramatic play, and snack preparation. Staff allow space for the children to explore their interests and engage their autonomy.
When we’re not on site, we’ll be on adventures in the city and the surrounding areas with the children. Such things that might emerge in our planning process is: How will we get there? What will we need while we’re there? We are fortunate enough to be located in the heart of the Harvard Square neighborhood in Cambridge, with easy access to public transit, tons of playgrounds, and recreational spots.
Children are well supervised throughout the day. We maintain a staff-to-child ratio of 1:5. Our small group sizes and low child: teacher ratio allows us to support your child’s growth at a highly individualized basis.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
A Place to be Known
A firm understanding of a child’s approach to learning is grounded in a developmentally informed and compassionate practice. At CCC, teachers think deeply about who each child is: What helps a child learn? What gets in the way of a child’s learning? What do they feel strongly about? How do they attempt to get what they want? Teachers orient themselves to come from a place of understanding, using emotional communication to help children enlist adults as allies.
Play is the Work of the Child
Play is essential to the formation of the child. It is the laboratory where children get to experiment, try on new ideas, have conflicts, have setbacks and recover, and develop empathy and understanding. At CCC, teachers plan experiences that are responsive to the feelings, interests, and curiosities that children are exploring and encountering in play. Children are at the center of all that the teacher does as the observer, facilitator, and documenter of their learning.
A Child's Pace
CCC is a unique invitation to slow down. School days are often filled to the brim with activity, set with the expectation that children will just have to adapt to tedious schedules and overly-planned agendas. At CCC, the schedule is there to support the children, not the other way around. Inherent to the principles of process learning, we believe that a child’s pace should set the rhythm for our days. This can be seen in our daily commitment to carve out lengthy time for play and transitions.
Process Learning
Particularly in a group context, learning is both exciting and frustrating. There is meaningful and lasting growth when adults invite children to step inside the problem with us, to look at its contours, feel its discomfort and uncover the sticking points for those involved. Through group process learning, a collaborative approach facilitated by a skilled teacher, children are regularly invited to identify and explore the feelings that emerge and choices available when issues inherent to learning inevitably arise.
